rOI.IIMRUS  DAY 


COLUMBIA,  S.  C. 


WITH  THE  ADDRESS 

OF 


Hon.  LeRoy  F.  Youmans. 


Pamphlet  Colieowea 
Duke  University  Libraqi 


THE  CELEBRATION 

l \ 

0 E 


POT.UMBUS  DAY 


October  21,  1892. 


COLUMBIA,  3.  C. 


G Q 


WITH  THE  ADDRESS 


OF 

Hon.  LeRoy  F.  Yonmans. 


COLUMBIA,  S.  C. 

CHARLES  A.  CAL  VO,  JR.,  PRINTER. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/celebrationofcolOOyoum 


COLUMBUS  DAY. 

OCTOBER  21,  1892. 
Columbia,  S.  C. 


THE  CELEBRATION. 


The  21st  day  of  October,  1892,  was  generally  observed  as  “ Dis- 
covery Day " in  South  Carolina,  as  in  most  of  the  States  and 
countries  of  the  civilized  world. 

On  the  24th  of  September,  the  Governor  of  the  State  issued 
the  following  proclamation,  calling  upon  the  people  to  observe 
the  day  appropriately  : 

PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  accordance 
with  the  Act  of  Congress,  has  issued  his  proclamation  setting 
apart  Friday,  the  21st  day  of  October,  as  a general  holiday  com- 
memorative of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Christopher  Colum- 
bus, and  has  invited  all  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  celebration  of  that  day  ; and  whereas  the  discovery 
of  America  was  one  of  the  most  glorious  and  momentous  events 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  especially  of  this  continent,  in 
the  blessed  consequences  of  which  our  people  now  so  richly 
partake  : 

Therefore  I,  Benjamin  R.  Tillman,  Governor  of  South 
Carolina,  do  hereby  appoint  and  set  apart  Friday,  the  21st  day 
of  October,  as  a general  holiday  and  a day  of  thanksgiving. 
And  I invite  the  people  of  South  Carolina  on  that  day  to  abstain 
from  their  ordinary  occupations,  as  far  as  may  be,  and  to  unite  in 


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such  forms  of  private  and  public  observance  as  shall  duly  cele- 
brate the  notable  events  here  commemorated  and  express  their 
gratitude  to  Almighty  God  for  the  blessings  of  liberty,  peace  and 
happiness  which  have  followed  it. 

Given  under  my  hand  and  the  great  seal  of  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  this  24th  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-two. 

B.  E.  TILLMAN,  Governor. 

Several  weeks  before  the  event  the  State  Superintendent  of 
Education,  Hon.  W.  D.  Mayfield,  published  a circular  letter  in- 
viting all  schools  and  school  authorities  to  unite  in  imeparing 
appropriate  exercises  for  the  occasion,  and  offering  to  send  to  all 
applicants  copies  of  the  National  Official  Programme  prepared  by 
the  National  Association  of  School  Superintendents. 

The  suggestions  of  the  State  Superintendent  were  carried  out 
in  many  communities  of  the  State.  The  celebration  at  Columbia, 
the  State  capital,  had  a special  significance,  both  on  account  of 
the  general  interest  manifested  and  the  fact  that  the  chief  exer- 
cises of  the  day  were  held  in  the  Capitol  building.  As  in  most 
parts  of  the  United  States,  the  celebration  took  chiefly  the  form 
of  a public  school  demonstration,  although  the  banks,  the  Court 
House  and  many  of  the  business  houses  of  the  city  were  closed, 
and  the  citizens  of  Columbia  by  their  presence  and  active  partici- 
pation in  the  exercises  testified  to  their  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  such  an  observance  of  the  important  anniversary.  The  Hall 
of  Representatives  was  crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity  by  the 
throng  of  students  and  of  citizens,  including  many  of  the  leading 
men  of  the  State,  who  had  assembled  to  commemorate  the  great- 
est event  of  modern  history  and  to  do  honor  to  the  great  dis- 
coverer, whose  name  has  been  perpetuated  in  the  name  of  the 
city  itself. 

The  public  exercises  of  the  day  began  at  9 o’clock  in  the  chapel 
of  the  Winthrop  Normal  College,  which  had  been  tastefully  deco- 
rated for  the  occasion.  The  place  of  honor  was  held  by  a por- 
trait of  Columbus,  above  which  had  been  draped  a large  United 
States  flag,  while  a picture  of  Washington  and  another  of  the 
authorized  likenesses  of  the  great  Admiral  were  hung  on  either 
side.  On  the  opposite  blackboards  drawings  representing  draped 
flags  of  the  United  States  and  of  Spain  had  been  executed  in 


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colored  crayons.  In  other  parts  of  the  hall  United  States  flags, 
with  here  and  there  a blue  Palmetto  banner  of  South  Carolina, 
were  arranged  among  shields,  mottoes  and  flowers,  giving  a festive 
and  patriotic  air  to  the  apartment. 

After  the  usual  devotional  exercises,  which  had  relation  to  the 
events  of  the  day,  historical  exercises  were  presented. 

The  programme  was  as  follows  : 

1.  Columbus — 

a.  His  Life,  Miss  Verdier. 

b.  His  Work,  Miss  Grant. 

c.  What  He  Gave  the  World,  Miss  Pope. 

2.  Song — “ Star  of  Freedom,”  Donizetti. 

3.  Historical  Review — 

a.  Salient  Points  in  U.  S.  History,  Miss  Dunbar. 

b.  The  United  States  in  1492,  1592,  1692,  1792,  1892, 

Miss  Tradewell. 

4.  Reading — “Columbus,”  Miss  Bonham. 

5.  Song — Keller’s  American  Hymn. 

An  extract  from  Hon.  Robt.  C.  Winthrop’s  recent  Report  to 
the  Peabody  Board,  referring  to  the  approaching  anniversary, 
was  then  read  by  Dr.  E.  S.  Joynes,  a member  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  of  the  college,  as  follows  : 

“ By  an  unforeseen  but  by  no  means  unwelcome  or  inappro- 
priate coincidence,  we  meet  here  in  New  York  on  one  of  the  days 
which  has  been  selected  by  this  great  commercial  metropolis  for 
celebrating  the  four  hundreth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of 
America.  The  grand  procession  is  being  marshalled  beneath 
these  windows  while  we  are  entering  on  our  deliberations.  It 
commemorates  the  day — the  12th  of  October,  1492 — on  which 
Columbus  is  recorded  to  have  made  his  discovery  of  the  New 
World,  according  to  the  calendar  in  use  at  the  time.  The  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  making  the  allowance  of  nine  days  for 
the  change  of  calendar,  agreeably  to  the  resolution  of  Congress, 
has  appointed  the  21st  of  October  as  a general  holiday  for  the 
American  people.  In  his  admirable  proclamation  for  that  pur- 
pose, after  speaking  of  Columbus  as  the  pioneer  of  progress  and 
enlightenment,  he  proceeds  as  follows  : ‘ The  system  of  universal 
education  is  in  our  age  the  most  prominent  and  salutary  feature 
of  the  spirit  of  enlightenment,  and  it  is  peculiarly  appropriate 


6 


that  the  schools  he  made  by  the  people  the  centre  of  the  day’s 
demonstration.’  ‘Let  the  national  flag/  he  adds,  ‘float  over 
every  schoolhouse  in  the  country,  and  the  exercises  be  such  as 
shall  impress  upon  our  youth  the  patriotic  duties  of  American 
citizenship.’ 

“Beyond  all  question,  the  discovery  of  this  great  country  and 
continent — if  I may  not  say  hemisphere — whether  according  to 
old  style  or  new  style,  the  J ulian  or  the  Gregorian  calendar,  is 
pre-eminently  worthy  of  commemoration  and  celebration  by  the 
whole  American  people  ; and  nothing  could  be  more  fit  than  for 
the  schools  to  be  made  the  centre  of  the  day’s  demonstration.  It 
will  be  a signal  recognition  of  the  great  truth  that  education  is 
to  be  the  main  hope  of  our  country  in  the  future,  as  it  has  been  our 
main  support  for  the  past.  With  the  blessing  of  God,  and  a 
thorough  system  of  popular  education,  we  may  look  forward 
safely  and  confidently  to  the  maintenance  of  our  free  institutions. 
The  future  of  the  country  is  in  the  very  schools  which  we  are 
establishing  and  supporting,  and  in  those  which  others  are  main- 
taining, and  shall  continue  to  maintain,  in  all  quarters  of  the 
land. 

“ Thus  far  the  discovery  of  America  has  been  an  incalculable 
blessing  to  the  world.  If  it  is  to  be  so  in  all  time  to  come,  edu- 
cation, with  God’s  blessing,  will  decide.  We  may  thus  pursue 
our  work,  gentlemen,  with  the  proud  consciousness  that  we  are 
doing  something  for  the  enduring  welfare  and  glory,  not  of  the 
Southern  States  of  the  Union  only,  but  of  our  whole  country  and 
of  mankind.” 

Then  followed  a brief  address,  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  by 
Hon.  W.  D.  Mayfield,  State  Superintendent  of  Education. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Mayfield’s  address  another  song,  “Ark  of 
Freedom,”  was  sung,  and  at  10  o’clock  the  visitors,  with  the 
teachers  and  students,  dispersed  themselves  in  groups  to  listen  to 
the  Columbian  Exercises  that  had  been  prepared  by  the  different 
grades  of  the  City  Schools  in  the  Washington  Street  and  Marion 
Street  school  buildings. 

These  exercises  were  very  varied,  from  the  simple  story  of  the 
wonderful  voyage  with  map  and  picture  illustrations  for  the  little 
ones,  to  historical  papers  and  readings  in  the  older  grades.  Simi- 
lar exercises  were  held  in  the  Laurel  Street  School  and  the 
Howard  School. 


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At  11  o’clock  the  ringing  of  the  bell  on  the  Washington  Street 
School  building  announced  the  formation  of  the  procession.  It 
formed  at  the  corner  of  Washington  and  Marion  streets,  and 
moved  through  Marion  and  Plain  streets,  and  thence  by  Main 
street  to  the  Capitol. 

The  order  of  the  procession  was  as  follows  : 

1.  General  Richbourg  and  his  staff,  and  the  military  companies 
of  the  city. 

2.  Confederate  Veterans. 

3.  City  Council. 

4.  City  School  Board. 

5.  Boys  of  City  Schools. 

Another  procession  formed  of  the  young  ladies  of  the  Winthrop 
Normal  College  and  the  girls  of  the  City  Schools  was  formed 
upon  the  sidewalk,  which,  starting  toward  the  State  House  by  a 
nearer  way,  during  the  last  part  of  the  route  moved  down  Main 
street  in  parallel  column  to  the  other,  as  an  attendant  procession. 

Seats  on  the  floor  of  the  House  had  been  reserved  for  the  Nor- 
mal College  and  the  older  grades  of  the  public  schools.  The 
other  colleges  of  the  city  also  came  to  the  State  House  each  in  a 
body  and  were  seated  in  the  galleries. 

When  the  schools  and  the  military  and  the  invited  guests  had 
been  seated,  the  doors  of  the  great  Hall  of  Representatives  were 
thrown  open  to  the  general  public,  and  soon  all  seats  and  all 
available  standing  room  were  occupied. 

On  the  rostrum  were  seated  Governor  Tillman  ; Hon.  J.  E. 
Tindal,  Secretary  of  State  ; Hon.  W.  D.  Mayfield,  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Education  ; Col.  S.  W.  Rowan,  President  Confederate 
Survivors  Association  ; Dr.  A.  N.  Talley ; Rev.  W.  C.  Lindsay ; 
Rev.  S.  P.  H.  Elwell ; Hon.  John  P.  Thomas,  Jr.,  Chairman 
City  School  Board;  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Lyles  and  J.  T.  Barron,  Esq., 
members  of  City  School  Board ; the  Mayor  and  members  of  City 
Council;  Gen.  LeRoy  F.  Youmans;  and  Mr.  D.  B.  Johnson, 
Superintendent  of  City  Schools  and  President  Winthrop  Normal 
College,  who  announced  the  programme. 

The  exercises  at  the  State  House  began  at  12  o’clock  and  lasted 
a little  more  than  an  hour,  the  main  features  being  the  reading 
of  Edna  Dean  Proctor’s  Columbian  Ode,  which  was  effectively 
rendered  by  Hon.  John  P.  Thomas,  Jr.,  Chairman  of  the  City 
School  Board,  and  the  eloquent  address  of  Hon.  LeRoy  F.  You- 
mans, the  full  text  of  which  is  given  below. 


8 


The  exercises  were  varied  with  singing  by  the  Yormal  College 
and  the  children  of  the  Graded  Schools,  led  by  the  cornet  of  Mr. 
A.  W.  Hamiter.  The  hundreds  of  young  voices  made  an  inspir- 
ing chorus  as  they  sang  to  the  tune  of  “Maryland,  my  Mary- 
land/’ 

“ What  land  is  this  we  hail  so  free  ? 

America,  America.” 

The  exercises  at  the  State  House  closed  the  official  part  of  the 
day’s  programme. 

In  the  evening,  however,  a Columbian  entertainment  was  given 
at  the  Opera  House  under  the  auspices  of  the  Central  World’s 
Fair  Club,  consisting  of  tableaux  representing  scenes  in  the  life 
of  Columbus,  with  music  and  other  artistic  features. 

“Columbus  Day”  will  long  be  remembered  by  the  school  chil- 
dren and  many  others  in  Columbia  as  an  occasion  of  far  more 
than  usual  interest. 

The  following  is  the  programme  of  the  official  exercises  at  the 
State  House  : 

1.  Invocation,  Rev.  W.  C.  Lindsay. 

2.  Reading  of  Proclamation  of  the  President  of  the  Fnited 
States,  Hon.  ffm.  H.  Lyles,  member  of  City  School  Board. 

3.  Reading  of  Proclamation  of  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
Hon.  W.  D.  Mayfield,  State  Superintendent  of  Education. 

4.  Reading  of  Columbian  Ode,  Hon.  John  P.  Thomas.  Jr. 

5.  Singing,  “ What  Land  Is  This,”  by  chorus  of  500  voices. 

6.  Address,  Hon.  LeRoy  F.  Youmans. 

7.  Singing,  “America,”  by  chorus  of  500  voices. 

8.  Benediction,  Rev.  S.  P.  H.  El  well. 


9 


COLUMBIAN  ODE. 


BY  EDNA  DEAN  PKOCTOR. 


(Read  by  Jno.  P.  Thomas,  Jr.,  Esq.) 


“COLUMBIA’S  BANNER.” 

“God  helping  me,”  cried  Columbus,  “though  fair  or  foul  the  breeze, 

I will  sail  and  sail  till  I find  the  land  beyond  the  Western  seas  !” — 

So  an  eagle  might  leave  its  eyrie,  bent,  though  the  blue  should  bar, 

To  fold  its  wings  on  the  loftiest  peak  of  an  undiscovered  star  ! 

And  into  the  vast  and  void  abyss  he  followed  the  setting  sun  ; 

Nor  gulfs  nor  gales  could  fright  his  sails  till  the  wondrous  quest  was  done. 
But  O the  weary  vigils,  the  murmuring,  torturing  days, 

Till  the  Pinta’s  gun,  and  the  shout  of  “ Land  !”  set  the  black  night  ablaze  ! 
Till  the  shore  lay  fair  as  Paradise  in  morning’s  balm  and  gold, 

And  a world  was  won  from  the  conquered  deep,  and  the  tale  of  the  ages  told  ! 
Uplift  the  Starry  Banner  ! The  best  age  is  begun  ! 

We  are  the  heirs  of  the  mariners  whose  voyage  that  morn  was  done. 
Measureless  lands  Columbus  gave  and  rivers  through  zones  that  roll. 

But  his  rarest,  noblest  bounty  was  a New  World  for  the  Soul  ! 

For  he  sailed  from  the  Past  with  its  stifling  walls,  to  the  Future’s  open  sky, 
And  the  ghosts  of  gloom  and  fear  were  laid  as  the  breath  of  heaven  went  by  ; 
And  the  pedant’s  pride  and  the  lordling’s  scorn  were  lost,  in  that  vital  air, 

As  fogs  are  lost  when  sun  and  wind  sweep  ocean  blue  and  bare  ; 

And  Freedom  and  larger  Knowledge  dawned  clear,  the  sky  to  span. 

The  birthright,  not  of  priest  or  king,  but  of  every  child  of  man  ! 

Uplift  the  New  World’s  Banner  to  greet  the  exultant  sun  ! 

Let  its  rosy  gleams  still  follow  his  beams  as  swift  to  West  they  run, 

Till  the  wide  air  rings  with  shout  and  hymn  to  welcome  it  shining  high, 

And  our  eagle  from  lone  Katahdin  to  Shasta’s  snow  can  fly 
In  the  light  of  its  stars  as  fold  on  fold  is  flung  to  the  autumn  sky  ! 

Uplift  it,  Youths  and  Maidens,  with  songs  and  loving  cheers  ; 

Through  triumphs,  raptures,  it  has  waved,  through  agonies  and  tears. 
Columbia  looks  from  sea  to  sea  and  thrills  with  joy  to  know 
Her  myriad  sons,  as  one,  would  leap  to  shield  it  from  a foe  ! 

And  you  who  soon  will  be  the  State,  and  shape  each  great  decree, 

Oh,  vow  to  live  and  die  for  it,  if  glorious  death  must  be  ! 

The  brave  of  all  the  centuries  gone  this  starry  Flag  have  wrought ; 

In  dungeons  dim,  on  gory  fields,  its  light  and  peace  were  bought ; 

And  you  who  front  the  future — whose  days  our  dreams  fulfil — 

On  Liberty’s  immortal  height,  Oh,  plant  it  firmer  still ! 

For  it  floats  for  broadest  learning  ; for  the  soul’s  supreme  release  ; 

For  law  disdaining  license  ; for  righteousness  and  peace  ; 

For  valor  born  of  justice  ; and  its  amplest  scope  and  plan 
Makes  a queen  of  every  woman,  a king  of  every  man  ! 

While  forever,  like  Columbus,  o’er  Truth’s  unfathomed  main 
It  pilots  to  the  hidden  isles,  a grander  realm  to  gain. 


10 


Ah  ! what  a mighty  trust  is  ours,  the  noblest  ever  sung, 

To  keep  this  Banner  spotless  its  kindred  stars  among  ! 

Our  fleets  may  throng  the  oceans — our  forts  the  headlands  crown — 

Our  mines  their  treasures  lavish  for  mint  and  mart  and  town — 

Rich  fields  and  flocks  and  busy  looms  bring  plenty,  far  and  wide — 

And  statelier  temples  deck  the  land  than  Rome’s  or  Athen’s  pride — 
And  science  dare  the  mysteries  of  earth  and  wave  and  sky — 

Till  none  with  us  in  splendor  and  strength  and  skill  can  vie  ; 

Yet,  should  we  reckon  Liberty  and  Manhood  less  than  these, 

And  slight  the  right  of  the  humblest  between  our  circling  seas, — 
Should  we  be  false  to  our  sacred  past,  our  father’s  God  forgetting, 

This  Banner  would  lose  its  lustre,  our  sun  be  nigh  his  setting  ! 

But  the  dawn  will  sooner  forget  the  East,  the  tides  their  ebb  and  flow. 
Than  you  forget  our  radiant  Flag,  and  its  matchless  gifts  forego  ! 

Nay  ! you  will  keep  it  high  advanced  with  ever-brightening  sway — 
The  Banner  whose  light  betokens  the  Lord’s  diviner  day — 

Leading  the  nations  gloriously  in  Freedom’s  holy  way  ! 

No  cloud  on  the  field  of  azure — no  stain  on  the  rosy  bars — 

God  bless  you,  Youths  and  Maidens,  as  you  guard  the  Stripes  and  Stars 


ADDRESS 


OF 

LeROY  f.  youmans. 


Columbus  Day,  October  21,  1892. 


Mr,  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : To  present  any- 
thing like  a contrast  between  the  condition  of  the  world  in  1492 
and  in  1892,  to  glance  even  with  a bird’s  eye  view  at  the  earth-shak- 
ing events  of  those  four  hundred  years  in  forty  minutes,  is  simply 
impossible.  The  mere  roll-call,  compared  with  the  length  of 
which  that  of  the  catalogue  of  the  ships  in  Homer  sinks  into 
utter  insignificance— the  mere  roll-call  of  the  men  of  power,  the 
men  with  most  iron  in  the  globules  of  their  blood,'  who  stamped 
their  impress  on  those  centuries — the  mighty  hunters  before  the 
Lord,  the  giants  in  the  earth  in  those  days,  would  exhaust  the 
entire  morning,  and  even  then  we  should  have  all  text  and  no 
sermon,  and  only  part  of  the  text  at  that. 

The  year  1492  marks  a memorable  era  in  the  annals  of  the 
human  race.  In  that  year  Rodrigo  Borgia,  under  the  title  of 
Alexander  VI.,  ascended  the  Papal  throne,  the  most  characteristic 
incarnation  of  the  secular  spirit  of  the  Papacy  ; the  successor  of 
St.  Peter,  who  appears  for  the  last  time  in  history  as  the  ultimate 
Justiciar  of  appeal  for  Christian  nations  ; who  administered  jus- 
tice after  a marvellous  sort,  and  by  tracing  a line  upon  a map  dis- 
posed of  three-fourths  of  the  family  of  man  ; and  who,  the  head 
of  the  Christian  world,  sought  an  alliance  with  the  Grand  Turk  : 
strange  union  of  the  Crescent  and  the  Cross  ! 

He  was  father  of  the  infamous  Caesar  Borgia,  the  greatest  prac- 
tical statesman  of  the  age,  admired  by  Machiavelli  the  virtuous, 
the  greatest  speculative  statesman  of  the  age.  Murderer,  poi- 
soner, fratricide  as  Caesar  Borgia  was,  blood  never  seemed  to  im- 
poverish the  luxury  of  his  genius  or  clog  the  melody  of  his  verse. 

This  sovereign  Pontiff,  Alexander  VI.,  was  the  father  also  of 


12 


the  beauteous  Lucretia  Borgia,  a lovelier  bride  than  whom  never 
a Duke  of  all  Alfonso’s  royal  race  brought  home  to  Ferrara  ; the 
glory  of  whose  golden  hair,  preserved  in  the  Ambrosian  Library 
at  Milan,  thrilled  the  poetic  soul  of  Byron  centuries  after  she 
was  dust.  “ Only  a woman’s  hair.”  Worthy  sire  of  such  a 
progeny;  worthy  progeny  of  such  a sire — sic  pater,  sic  films,  sic 
filia.  Well  may  Garnett  say  in  his  sketch  of  him,  that,  while  never 
according  to  mediaeval  ideas  had  a Pope  exerted  his  prerogative 
with  grandeur  equal  to  that  of  Alexander  VI.,  the  mediaeval 
conception  of  the  Papacy  was  passing  away,  for  in  1492  Martin 
Luther  was  nine  years  old. 

Religion  has  exercised  more  influence  over  the  temporal  affairs 
of  man  than  all  other  causes  combined  ; and  since  the  founda- 
tion of  Christianity  no  event  has  had  greater  influence  on  civil- 
ization than  the  Reformation.  Taken  within  its  narrowest  limits, 
the  Reformation  may,  according  to  the  view  of  Mullinger,  be 
looked  upon  as  commencing  with  the  year  1517,  when  Luther’s 
theses  were  published  at  Wittenberg,  representing  the  commence- 
ment of  that  direct  and  open  renunciation  of  medieval  doctrine 
which  he  initiated  ; and  as  finding  a certain  consummation  with 
the  year  1545,  when  the  assembling  of  the  Council  of  Trent 
marks  the  renewed  sanction  and  promulgation  of  that  doctrine, 
whereby  an  insuperable  barrier  was  erected  between  the  commu- 
nion of  Rome  and  the  Churches  of  Protestantism.  Yet  for  more 
than  a century  after  its  inception  religious  wars  and  controver- 
sies assaulted  every  tradition  and  opinion,  and  shook  every  insti- 
tution of  the  times.  Macaulay  fixes  the  treaty  of  Barwalde  in 
1631,  when  the  coalition  was  formed  between  Richelieu,  the  first 
statesman  of  the  age,  a prince  of  the  Catholic  Church,  whose 
indomitable  heart  had  crushed  the  Huguenots,  and  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  the  first  warrior  of  the  age,  a Protestant  king  of  chi- 
valric  heroism,  who  owed  his  throne  to  a revolution  caused  by 
hatred  of  Popery,  as  marking  the  time  when  the  great  religious 
struggle  terminated  and  the  war  of  sects  ceased — the  war  suc- 
ceeding being  a war  of  States  for  the  equilibrium  of  Europe,  for 
that  balance  of  power  at  whose  shrine  so  many  hecatombs  of 
human  victims  have  been  sacrificed,  so  many  rivers  of  human 
blood  have  been  poured  out.  From  these  religious  wars  and 
controversies,  in  the  philosophic  judgment  of  Hammond,  sprung 
modern  civil  liberty,  all  sides  contributing  in  turn  to  its  develop- 
ment. 


13 


In  1492  died  Lorenzo  de  Medicis — Lorenzo  the  Magnificent — 
the  most  munificent  patron  of  art  and  letters,  the  most  magnifi- 
cent Maecenas  known  to  history  since  the  great  premier  of 
Augustus  Caesar  ; whose  palace,  like  Holland  House,  during  the 
regime  of  the  great  Whig  coterie,  was  the  favorite  resort  of  wits 
and  beauties,  of  painters  and  poets,  of  scholars,  philosophers  and 
statesmen  ; within  whose  walls  were  trained  the  two  young  Me- 
dici, to  whose  intellects  Lorenzo  gave  the  strong  food  on  which 
the  statesmen  of  Florence  fed  their  pupil  princes,  both  of  whom 
subsequently  ascended  the  throne  of  St.  Peter — his  son  as  Pope 
Leo  X.,  his  nephew  as  Pope  Clement  VII.  So  consummate  a 
master  of  statecraft  was  he,  so  dominant  in  Italian  politics,  as 
to  virtually  unite  Rome  with  Florence,  and  to  be  justly  styled 
the  “needle  of  the  Italian  compass/'’  Villari,  professor  in  the 
Royal  Institute,  Florence,  in  his  sketches  of  Italian  statesmen, 
tells  us  that  though  he  was  lord  of  all,  and  virtually  a tyrant, 
yet  under  Lorenzo’s  rule  all  industry,  commerce,  and  public 
works  made  enormous  progress — that  the  civil  equality  of  modern 
States,  which  was  quite  unknown  in  the  middle  ages,  was  more 
developed  in  Florence  than  in  any  other  city  of  the  world,  and 
that  even  the  condition  of  the  peasantry  was  far  more  prosperous 
than  elsewhere.  And  Guicciardini,  the  great  historian,  (of 
whom  Charles  V.  said  “I  can  make  a hundred  Spanish  grandees 
in  a minute,  but  cannot  make  one  • Guicciardini  in  a hundred 
years/’)  voices  the  verdict  of  history  when  he  says,  “If  Florence 
was  to  have  a tyrant,  she  could  never  have  found  a better  or 
more  pleasant  one.”  His  picturesque  life  and  equally  pictur- 
esque death,  were  alike  the  wonders  of  the  age,  and  his  virtues 
and  vices  are  alike  embalmed  in  his  classic  biography  by  Roscoe, 
who  is  pronounced  by  Horace  Walpole  to  be  by  far  the  best  of 
our  historians. 

In  1492  the  Czar  of  Muscovy  was  Ivan  III. , in  whose  reign  we 
first  hear  of  the  terrible  punishment  of  the  knout.  The  knout 
for  the  back  of  the  subject  is  what  makes  assassination  act  as 
that  check  on  the  overaction  of  autocratic  government  which 
in  republican  governments  is  effected  by  a constitution.  The 
knout  for  the  back  of  the  subject  is  what  makes  the  great 
White  Czar  of  all  the  Russias  ride  in  the  procession  at  his  coro- 
nation preceded  by  the  assassins  of  his  grandfather,  accompa- 
nied by  the  assassins  of  his  farher,  and  followed  by  his  own. 

In  1492  Martin  Behaim  constructed  at  Nuremberg  the  first 


14 


terrestrial  globe  (world  apple)  of  any  importance,  known  to  geo- 
graphers, which,  while  having  most  of  the  disproportions  of  the 
old  Ptolemaic  geography,  embodies  the  geographic  views  of  him- 
self and  some  of  his  great  contemporaries,  incorporated  with 
information  devived  from  Marco  Polo,  Mandeville,  and  other 
then  recent  travelers. 

In  1492  Henry  VIII.,  the  historic  Blue  Beard  of  England,  was 
an  infant  of  a year. 

In  1492,  his  father,  Henry  VII.  of  England,  invaded  France, 
of  which  Charles  VIII.  had  been  nine  years  king.  Henry  VII. 
had  been  seven  years  on  the  throne  of  England,  having  ended 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses  by  his  victories  in  love  and  war  ; uniting 
the  white  and  red  roses  by  his  marriage  with  Elizabeth,  daugh- 
ter of  Edward  IV.,  soon  after  defeating  Richard  III.  at  the  battle 
of  Bosworth.  His  reign  marks  the  beginning  of  a new  era  in 
England  : the  iron  rule  of  the  Tudors.  There  is  no  more  inter- 
esting or  instructive  portion  of  modern  European  history  than 
that  which  recounts  the  phases  of  that  terrible  conflict,  which 
went  on,  in  the  field  and  at  the  council  board,  in  the  camp  and 
in  Parliament,  at  every  hearth  and  in  all  society,  whose  result 
has  been  the  conversion  of  the  Great  Britain  of  Henry  VII.  into 
the  Great  Britain  of  Victoria,  the  conversion  of  Great  Britain 
from  the  despotism  of  the  Tudors  into  what  Great  Britain  is  to- 
day : a republic  governed  under  monarchical  forms. 

In  1492,  King  Ferdinand  V.  of  that  name  of  Castile,  III.  of 
Naples,  II.  of  Aragon  and  Sicily,  had  the  title  of  Catholic  con- 
ferred on  him  by  the  Pope. 

In  1492,  under  his  rule,  the  Jews  were  expelled  from  Spain. 

In  1492,  under  his  rule,  terminated  the  war  of  Granada,  after 
ten  years  of  incessant  fighting,  equalling  the  far-famed  siege  of 
Troy,  and  ending  like  that  in  the  capture  of  the  city,  the  account 
of  which  you  have  all  read  in  the  pleasing  pages  of  Irving.  Thus 
ended  the  domination  of  the  Moors  in  Spain,  involving  the  final 
extinction  of  Mahometan  power  there,  which  had  lasted  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  years,  from  the  memorable  defeat  of 
Roderic,  the  last  of  the  Goths,  on  the  banks  of  the  Guadalete. 
The  name  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  is  inseparably  associated 
with  the  most  splendid  of  all  periods  in  the  annals  of  Spain.  For 
it  was  under  his  guidance  the  kingdom  was  consolidated,  and 
grew  into  its  position  of  highest  prosperity  and  greatest  influ- 
ence as  a European  power. 


15 


In  no  European  country  have  the  rise  and  fall  of  national 
greatness  been  more  marked  than  in  Spain. 

It  was  the  boast  of  Themistocles  that  he  knew  how  to 
make  a small  State  great ; but  the  student  of  the  morbid  anat- 
omy of  governments  can  learn  from  the  history  of  Spain  how 
to  make  a great  State  small.  Contrast  the  Spain  of  Ferdinand 
and  his  two  immediate  successors  with  the  Spain  of  to-day,  the 
Spain  of  1492,  with  the  Spain  of  1892 : quantum  mutatus 
ab  illo. 

Charles  I.  of  Spain,  more  generally  known  by  his  European 
title  as  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  was  the  grandson  and  successor 
of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic.  The  first  six  years  of  his  life  were 
contemporary  with  the  last  six  of  the  life  of  him  whose  greatest 
title  to  fame  the  old  world  and  the  new,  the  oixov^er?)  Tfj 
to-day  commemorates.  This  ablest  and  most  powerful  monarch 
of  the  16th  century  was  born  to  such  vast  possessions  and  weighty 
responsibilities  as  have  seldom,  if  ever,  fallen  to  the  lot  of  other 
mortals.  Eight  years  before  his  birth,  the  bravest,  the  wisest, 
the  greatest  of  navigators  had  discovered  for  him,  beyond  the 
straits  guarded  by  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  territories  of  extent 
not  bounded  even  by  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  more  fertile  than 
the  foot  of  man  has  ever  elsewhere  trod,  and  teeming  with  mines 
of  the  precious  metals  sufficient  to  glut  the  “ auri  sacra  fames” 
of  the  world. 

When  Charles  Y.  was  only  thirteen  years  of  age,  one  of  his  sub- 
jects, Balboa,  discovered  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  first  European  to 
see  that  marvellous  waste  of  waters  of  whose  existence  a still 
greater  navigator,  the  greatest  of  navigators,  whose  greatest  exploit 
we  to-day  celebrate,  was  certain,  and  which  he  had  long  tried 
vainly  to  discover.  Who  that  has  read,  can  ever  forget  the  ex- 
quisite pathos  of  the  passage  in  “ The  Damsel  of  Darien/''  in 
which  our  own  gifted  and  lamented  Simms  pictures  the  emo- 
tions of  Balboa  when  first  he  gazed  upon  the  waters  of  that 
boundless  and  waveless  ocean — an  ocean  whose  slumbers  the  eye 
of  European  had  never  before  'seen,  nor  his  footsteps  broken, — 
pathos  which  stamps  the  passage  as  a gem  and  Simms  as  a mas- 
ter in  our  literature.  And  while  Charles  Y.  was  being  crowned 
with  the  crown  of  Charlemagne  and  Barbarossa  at  Aix  la  Chapelle, 
another  of  his  subjects,  the  great  Portuguese  navigator,  Magellan, 
who  had  entered  his  service,  was  prosecuting  the  great  voyage 
which  was  to  result  in  the  circumnavigation  of  the  globe.  And 


16 


still  another  of  his  subjects,  the  audacious  Cortez,  (who  dared  to 
say  to  him,  “I  am  a man  who  has  given  you  more  provinces 
than  your  ancestors  left  you  cities,”)  was  conquering  for  him  the 
land  of  the  Montezumas.  And  ere  he  had  been  twenty  years  on 
the  throne  of  Spain,  another  of  his  subjects,  Pizarro,  had  com- 
pleted for  him  the  conquest  of  the  land  of  the  Incas,  the  children 
of  the  sun,  whose  edifices  displayed  marvelous  building  skill, 
whose  workmanship  is  unsurpassed,  and  to  whose  skill  and  ac- 
curacy displayed  in  their  structures,  in  the  way  of  stone  cutting 
and  fitting,  the  world  can  show  nothing  equal. 

The  empire  of  his  son  and  successor,  Philip  II.,  was  one  of  the 
most  powerful  and  splendid  that  ever  existed.  For  years  his 
power  over  Europe  was  greater  than  Napoleon  ever  possessed  ; 
for,  fully  recognizing  the  truth  expressed  by  one  of  our  own 
Carolina  statesmen,  Hammond,  that  “ amphibious  man  never 
attains  half  his  national  greatness  until  his  domain  on  the  water 
equals  that  upon  the  land — until  the  terror  of  his  prowess  makes 
his  home  upon  the  deep  as  secure  as  on  the  mountains,”  Philip 
held  what  no  other  modem  sovereign  has  ever  held,  the  domin- 
ion both  of  the  land  and  of  the  sea.  His  soldiers  marched  up 
to  the  capital  of  La  Belle  France,  and  his  Armadas,  the  terror  of 
the  Atlantic  and  the  Mediterranean,  hovered  like  vultures  for 
their  prey  on  the  coasts  “ of  the  inviolate  isle  of  the  sage  and  the 
free.” 

As  it  has  been  pithily  summed  up,  this  paramount  ascendancy 
of  Spain  had  been  gained  by  unquestioned  superiority  in  all  the 
arts  of  policy  and  war. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  Italy  was  not  more  decidedly  the 
land  of  the  fine  arts,  Germany  was  not  more  decidedly  the  land 
of  bold  theological  speculation,  than  Spain  was  the  land  of  states- 
men and  soldiers — statesmen  who  possessed  “ more  Romano  ” 
that  majestic  art  “ regere  imperio  populos” — statesmen  unsur- 
passed by  Venetian  diplomat  or  Florentine  oligarch : soldiers 
who,  with  the  cry  of  “ St.  James  for  Spain,”  charged  armies 
which  outnumbered  them  a hundred  fold — soldiers  who.  when 
the  waves  of  danger  rolled  high  in  front,  dared  to  burn  their 
ships  behind  them,  resolved,  with  fearful  odds  against  them,  in 
the  hush  of  desperation  to  conquer  or  to  die. 

Seventy-one  years  after  1492  Philip  II.  laid  the  first  stone  of 
the  stately  Escurial,  at  once  a convent,  a church,  a palace  and 


17 


a mausoleum,  and  in  this  last  there  still  repose,  each  in  a massy 
sarcophagus,  the  departed  kings  and  queens  of  Spain. 

But  where  be  the  couriers  (annalists  tell  us  of)  bearing  orders 
big  with  the  fate  of  kings  and  commonwealths,  who  used  to  ride 
forth  from  the  massive  portals  of  the  palace,  once  the  head- 
quarters of  the  diplomacy  of  civilization,  and  the  centre  of  the 
politics  of  the  world  ? 

The  power,  which  once  domineered  over  the  land  and  over  the 
sea  has  been  succeeded  by  an  utter  prostration  of  strength. 
The  vigor  which  crushed  the  Mussulman,  the  Protestant  and  the 
heathen  has  been  succeeded  by  utter  lassitude.  The  wealth  of 
Attains  has  been  succeeded  by  a bankrupt  treasury. 

And  whether  it  be  true  that  Cervantes,  by  his  great  novel, 
laughed  chivalry  away  in  Spain,  or  that,  while  the  crusades  have 
been  a mere  episode  in  the  history  of  other  nations,  the  existence 
of  Spain  has  been  one  long  crusade ; it  is  unquestionably  true 
that  history — history  in  its  broad  sense  of  philosopy  teaching  by 
experience,  philosophy  teaching  by  example,  teaches  that  all  the 
causes  of  the  apparently  incurable  decay  in  Spain  resolve  them- 
selves into  one  cause — bad  government. 

All  that  has  been  or  will  be  said,  and  further  details,  can  easily 
be  found  in  some  one  or  other  of  the  encyclopaedias,  histories, 
biographies  or  other  treatises  on  the  subjects  to  which  reference 
is  made. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  the  events  of  the  year  1492,  the  event 
which  will  forever,  so  long  as  time  shall  last,  mark  it  with  the 
whitest  of  chalk,  and  stamp  it  as  the  most  memorable  year  since 
that  from  which  all  after  ages  date  their  history,  the  event 
which  would  keep  its  memory  ever  green,  ever  vivid,  were  every 
other  vestige  of  its  existence  consigned  to  oblivion,  is  learned 
not  from  the  pompous  tomes  of  history,  or  the  ponderous  quartos 
of  encyclopcedias,  but  was  learned  by  us  all  in  the  first  four  lines 
of  verse  we  lisped  in  infancy  after  Mother  Goose’s  Melodies  and 
Watts’s  Hymns  : 

Columbus  was  a sailor  braye. 

The  first  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  ware. 

In  fourteen  hundred  ninety-two 
He  sailed  far  o’er  the  ocean  blue. 

What  though  young  Bjorni,  son  of  one  of  the  comrades  of  the 
Viking  Erik  the  Bed,  or  Leif,  son  of  Erik  himself,  did  discover 
America  in  985  or  986  ? What  though  the  Irish  discovered  it 


18 


earlier  ? What  though  America  had  been  known  to  the  barbar- 
ous tribes  of  Eastern  Asia  for  thousands  of  years  before  Colum- 
bus was  born  ? 

Certainly,  none  of  these  reputed  discoveries  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  either  statesmen  or  philosophers.  If  Columbus  did  not 
discover  America,  he  certainly  rediscovered  it,  which  was  better  : 
as  his  discovery,  whether  first,  or  in  whatever  numerical  rank  in 
point  of  time  it  may  be  placed,  is  the  only  one  which  has  been 
of  the  slightest  consequence  to  the  fortunes  of  the  human  race. 
Does  it  detract  from  the  validity  of  the  claim  of  Copernicus  to 
be  the  first  expounder  of  the  true  theory  of  celestial  motions, 
that  Pythagoras  said  the  sun,  and  not  the  earth,  was  the  centre 
of  the  universe,  and  that  the  planets  moved  round  it  in  elliptical 
orbits  ? 

Is  the  great  claim  of  Gutenburg  on  the  gratitude  of  mankind, 
in  connection  with  the  art  of  printing  with  movable  types,  les- 
sened by  the  fact  that  the  Roman  bakers  stamped  their  bread  ? 
Or  by  the  claims  of  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  ? Or  even  by  the 
alleged  Haarlem  invention  of  Laurens  Jansoon  Coster  ? 

Is  the  claim  of  Franklin  on  the  gratitude  of  the  human  race 
for  his  discoveries,  as  to  electricity  and  lightning,  lessened  by  the 
fact  that  Thales  gave  a hint  of  electricity  ? Or  by  the  theory  of 
Michaelis  that  the  forest  of  very  sharp  spikes  with  golden  or  gilt 
points  covering  the  roof  of  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  was  to  serve 
the  purpose  of  lightning  rods  ? Or  by  the  ideas  advanced  by 
Salverte  as  to  the  worship  of  Jupiter  Elicius,  in  his  work  on  the 
occult  sciences  of  the  Ancients  ? 

The  theory  generally  entertained  is,  that  while  thousands  had 
watched  the  tea  kettle,  and  hundreds  had  speculated  on  its  phe- 
nomena, James  Watt  first  caught  the  imp  that  tilted  the 
lid.  Is  his  fame  in  connection  with  the  steam  engine  impaired 
by  the  expressed  belief  of  Aristotle,  that  the  explosive  power  of 
steam  was  sufficient  to  produce  earthquakes  ? Or  by  the  fact 
that  Hero  of  Alexandria  actually  applied  steam  power  to  a toy 
machine  two  centuries  before  the  Christian  era  ? Or  by  that 
most  marvellous,  most  touching,  letter  of  the  great  French 
beauty,  Marion  de  Lorme,  to  the  Marquis  de  Cinq  Mars, 
written  from  Paris  in  February,  1641,  wherein  she  details  the 
wretched  fate  of  the  unfortunate  Solomon  de  Cans  of  Normandy, 
whom  Cardinal  Richelieu  imprisoned  in  the  Bicetre  as  a mad- 
man for  following  him  up  with  the  most  determined  persever- 


19 


ance  to  press  upon  Mm  the  merits  of  an  invention  by  which  he 
claimed  that  with  the  steam  of  boiling  water  carriages  could  be 
moved  and  ships  be  navigated  ? and  of  whom  the  English  lord, 
the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  after  examining  him  and  reading  his 
book,  said  : “ He  is  indeed  mad  now ; misfortune  and  captivity 

have  alienated  his  reason,  but  it  is  you  who  have  to  answer  for 
his  reason — when  you  cast  him  into  that  cell,  you  confined  the 
greatest  genius  of  the  age.” 

Each  century  as  it  adds  itself  to  the  many  which  have  elapsed 
since  Solomon,  in  his  cedar  palaces,  sang  the  vanity  of  man, 
adds  numberless  confirmations  to  the  truth  of  the  words  of  the 
wisest  of  men  that  “ there  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun,”  and 
enables  us  to  perceive  from  what  “remote  sources  the  greatest 
ideas,  unrealized,  unsystematized,  almost  unheeded,  have  floated 
down  the  mighty  stream  of  time — now  far  out  in  the  current,  now 
drawn  near  the  shore,  and  finally  thrown  on  some  propitious 
headland,  where  they  found  a genial  soil  and  bear  the  most- 
precious  fruit.” 

Columbus  was  thoroughly  prepared  for  his  great  task,  both 
theoretically  and  practically.  He  was  bred  at  the  University  of 
Pavia,  where  he  devoted  himself  to  the  mathematical  and  the  na- 
tural sciences,  and  received  instruction  in  nautical  astronomy 
from  the  most  expert  masters  of  the  time. 

He  was  “learned  in  all  the  wisdom”  of  navigators.  He  read 
and  meditated  on  the  works  of  Ptolemy  and  Marinus,  of  Near- 
chus  and  Pliny,  the  cosmography  of  Cardinal  Aliaco,  the  travels 
of  Marco  Polo  and  Mandeville.  He  mastered  all  the  sciences 
essential  to  or  in  any  manner  connected  with  his  calling,  made 
himself  an  adept  in  drawing  charts,  and  constructing  spheres, 
and  fitted  himself  to  become  a consummate  practical  as  well  as 
theoretical  seaman  and  navigator.  He  made  voyages  to  England, 
Iceland,  the  Guinea  Coast,  the  Greek  Isles,  the  Canary  Islands, 
Madeira,  the  Azores,  Porto  Santo,  Spain,  Portugal.  “ Wherever 
ship  has  sailed,”  he  writes  “there  have  I journeyed.” 

He  pondered  over  the  logs  and  papers  of  his  deceased  father- 
in-law,  who  had  been  a captain  in  the  service  of  the  great  Prince 
Henry  of  Portugal,  the  Navigator,  and  talked  with  old  seamen  of 
their  voyages  and  of  the  mystery  of  the  western  seas. 

He  had  been  in  sea  fights,  in  one  of  which  he  was  wrecked,  so 
far  from  land  that  only  by  being  an  expert  swimmer  and  with  the 
aid  of  an  oar  could  he  save  himself.  His  training  had  been  in  some 


20 


respects  like  that  of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  G-entiles,  “ in  ship- 
wreck and  in  the  deep,  in  journeyings  often,  in  perils  of  waters, 
in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  sea,  in 
weariness  and  painfulness,  in  watchings  often,  in  hunger  and 
thirst,  in  fastings  often,  in  cold  and  nakedness.” 

His  mind,  the  genuine  old  Greek  mind,  was  at  once  practical 
an'd  speculative.  In  support  of  the  idea  that  all  really  great 
minds  are  so,  numerous  instances  have  been  cited  by  those  who 
entertain  it.  In  the  palmiest  days  of  Greece,  history  tells  us  that 
her  philosophers  were  statesmen,  her  poets  and  historians  were 
warriors.  The  astronomer  who  first  predicted  an  eclipse  made  a 
fortune  by  dealing  in  olives  ; to  a successful  usurper  we  owe  the 
collection  of  the  scattered  songs  of  Homer  ; the  greatest  of  meta- 
physicians was  the  founder  of  the  science  of  politics  and  trained 
the  greatest  warrior  of  antiquity.  Bacon  presided  in  the  House 
of  Lords  ; Carnot  organized  victory. 

And  in  our  own  time  George  Grote,  the  man  who  has  written 
by  far  the  best  history  of  Greece,  was  at  once  a marvel  of  Greek 
scholarship  and  a banker  and  politician,  a business  man  compe- 
tent to  deal  in  business  matters  with  the  keenest  banker,  mer- 
chant or  politician  of  the  age.  The  man  who  best  understood 
Socrates,  Plato  and  Aristotle  was  the  man  who  could  compete 
with  Rothschild  in  bidding  for  a loan,  and  with  Peel  or  Palmer- 
ston in  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

Columbus  was  not  only  a seaman,  he  was  a navigator,  a mer- 
chant, a privateer,  a savant,  a warrior  ; he  knew  all  that  a navi- 
gator and  maritime  discoverer  of  his  time  could  know,  what  he 
should  do,  how  to  do  it,  could  do  it,  and  had  been  constantly 
doing  it.  The  mere  practitioner  is  necessarily  a quack  in  medi- 
cine, a pettifogger  in  law,  and  a charlatan  in  politics. 

A mere  practical  seaman  and  navigator  never  could  have 
accomplished  the  work  of  Columbus.  The  conception  of  the 
ideas  involving  such  results  as  Columbus  effected  could  come 
only  through  the  higher  processes  of  a mind  strong  by  nature, 
thoroughly  informed  by  learning  and  equipped  cap-a-pie  by  art. 

A mere  theorist  never  could  have  surmounted  the  practical 
difficulties  in  his  way,  never  could  have  run  the  gauntlet  of  the 
perils  through  which  Columbus  successfully  passed,  never  could 
have  slain  the  lions  or  strangled  the  serpents  in  his  path.  He 
would  have  been  killed  or  drowned  or  have  perished  by  the  way- 


21 


side  in  the  earlier  stages  of  Columbus’s  career,  with  the  goal  still 
far  out  of  view. 

Columbus  had  the  power  of  thought,  the  magic  of  the  mind. 
It  is  idle  to  deny  the  natural  diversity  of  human  intellects.  It 
was  due,  after  all,  to  the  rich  soil  of  Columbus’s  mind  that  the 
noble  seeds  there  planted  took  root  and  bore  abundantly  such 
precious  fruits. 

His  discovery  of  America  was  not  a lucky  incident  or  the 
result  of  mere  chance.  “We  must,”  says  Emerson,  “reckon 
success  a constitutional  trait.  If  Erik  is  in  robust  health  and 
has  slept  well,  and  is  at  the  top  of  his  condition,  and  is  thirty 
years  old,  at  his  departure  from  Greenland  he  will  steer  West  and 
his  ships  will  reach  Newfoundland.  But  take  Erik  out  and  put 
in  a better  and  stronger  and  bolder  man,  and  the  ships  will  sail 
six  hundred,  one  thousand,  fifteen  hundred  miles  further,  and 
reach  Labrador  and  New  England.  There  is  no  chance  in 
results.”  Columbus  was  that  better,  stronger  and  bolder  man, 
with  the  brawn  and  muscle  both  of  frame  and  mind,  and,  to 
crown  all,  no  man  of  less  exalted  piety  could  have  had  his  un- 
shaken confidence  in  the  providence  of  God. 

When  the  hour  for  action  came  the  man  was  not  found 
wanting. 

By  dint  of  long  revolving  in  his  mind  every  scrap  of  informa- 
tion obtainable  from  any  and  every  quarter,  every  particle  of 
knowledge  that  could  then  be  known  which  could  illumine  the 
vast  “ terra  incognita  et  mare  incognitum”  of  the  geography  of 
his  age,  by  the  most  strenuous  exercise  of  his  brain  and  the  cruel 
sweat  of  his  face,  he  excogitated  and  evolved  the  idea  that  the 
world  was  a sphere,  and  that  the  farther  the  Asiatic  Continent 
extended  to  the  East  the  nearer  it  came  round  to  Spain,  and  con- 
ceived the  design  of  reaching  Asia  by  sailing  westward.  All  the 
arguments  derivable  from  natural  reasons,  from  the  theories  of 
geographers,  and  from  the  reports  and  traditions  of  mariners, 
when  passed  through  the  powerful  alembic  of  his  mind,  told  him 
that  westward  lay  the  sea  path  to  the  “ thesauris  Arabum  et 
divitis  Indice,”  to  find  which  the  great  Portuguese  Prince, 
Henry,  the  Navigator,  had  devoted  the  labors  of  his  life.  They 
all  bade  him  go  west,  and  west  went  the  bold  Genoese  mariner, 
on  a voyage  the  most  momentous  and  big  with  fate  man  has  ever 
sailed.  For,  “ seeking  the  back  door  of  Asia,  Columbus  found 
himself  knocking  at  the  front  door  of  America.” 


22 


When  the  conception  had  grown  to  its  full  magnitude  in  his 
capacious  brain,  though  like  Archimedes,  the  greatest  mathe- 
matician and  the  most  inventive  genius  of  antiquity,  he  could  say 
not  only  Evppxa!  Evppua  ! but  also  Aos  nov  arcb,  na\  tov 
itoffpov  uivpaoo,  yet  the  patronage  and  aid  of  some  European 
government  to  give  its  sanction  and  furnish  the  material  equip- 
ment necessary  to  the  enterprise  were  as  indispensable  to  the 
execution  of  his  grand  conception  as  a sufficient  fulcrum  was 
to  the  execution  of  that  of  Archimedes. 

The  story  of  his  unsuccessful  attempts  to  obtain  that  aid  and 
patronage,  of  the  discouragements,  denials  and  rebuffs  with  which 
he  met,  and  of  the  apparently  insurmountable  obstacles  which 
gross  ignorance  and  hoary  geographical  and  theological  error, 
perjury  and  treachery,  seated  in  high  places,  piled  up  like  Pelion 
on  Ossa  in  his  path,  sickens  one,  even  when  read  in  cold  print 
after  the  lapse  of  four  centuries.  And  here  the  deep-seated 
conviction,  the  unconquerable  purpose,  the  dauntless  persever- 
ance, the  fervent  piety  of  Columbus  stood  him  in  good  stead  : 
for  after  repulses  which  would  have  forever  crushed  any  spirit  of 
less  heroic  mould,  nitor  in  adversum  was  still  his  motto.  He 
knew  that  whenever  or  wherever  men  meet  to  deliberate  or  act, 
in  conflicts  of  opinion,  the  trained  intellect,  with  truth,  justice 
and  earnest  conviction  on  its  side,  the  superior  mind,  the  subtler 
address,  the  inflexible  purpose,  the  gentle  yet  stronger  will,  must 
eventually  prevail. 

’Twere  more  than  a thrice  told  tale,  to  tell  of  how  he  dis- 
patched to  Henry  VII.  of  England  his  brother  Bartholomew, 
who  on  the  voyage  was  captured  by  pirates  ; of  his  earnest  but 
fruitless  applications  to  the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia  ; to  the 
Duke  of  Medina  Celi ; to  the  senate  of  Genoa,  of  which  city  he 
was  a native  ; to  John  II.  of  Portugal,  in  which  country  he  had 
wooed  and  won  his  bride  ; and  to  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  of 
Spain,  of  whom  he  had  become  a subject. 

Repulsed,  but  not  disheartened,  he  turned  his  wearied  steps 
to  yet  another  court,  that  of  France. 

Dickens,  in  his  Tale  of  Two  Cities,  tells  us,  that  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-five,  "there 
was  a Queen  with  a fair  face  on  the  throne  of  France.”  The 
Tale  of  Two  Worlds  tells  us  that,  fortunately  for  Columbus,  for 
Ferdinand,  for  Spain,  for  both  the  worlds,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 


23 


one  thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-two  there  was  a Queen 
with  an  heroic  soul  on  the  throne  of  Spain. 

A writer  of  verve  who  flashed  through  the  literary  firma- 
ment of  our  own  time,  the  comet  of  a season,  tells  us,  with  the 
air  half  of  a misogynist,  half  of  an  admirer  of  the  sex,  that  while 
“ it  is  true  that,  unravelling  the  cord  of  a man’s  existence,  you 
will  generally  find  the  blackest  hank  in  it  twined  by  a woman’s 
hand,  yet  it  is  not  less  common  to  trace  the  golden  thread  to  the 
same  spindle.” 

There  will  be  Queens  in  spite  of  Salic  and  other  laws  of 
later  date  than  Adam  and  Eve.  Not  for  the  first  nor  for  the 
last  time  in  history  did  the  fate  of  a people,  in  a crisis  of  na- 
tional life,  hang  on  that  exalted  womanhood,  that  unselfish  patriot- 
ism, that  grand  assumption  of  risk,  that  faith  superior  to  man’s, 
which  made 

“ Woman  danger  brave,— 

Last  at  the  cross 

And  earliest  at  the  grave,” 

— virtues  which  so  resplendently  adorned  Isabella’s  queenly  rank. 
History  does  justice  to  the  moral  influence  of  this 

“ Perfect  woman  nobly  planned 
To  warn,  to  comfort  and  command,” 

who  raised  the  Castilian  court  from  the  debasement  and  de- 
gradation of  the  preceding  reign  to  be  the  nursery  of  virtue  and 
of  generous  ambition.  But  the  words  with  which  Isabella  the 
Catholic,  wife  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  recalled  to  her  royal 
presence  the  illustrious  wanderer  Columbus,  after  he  had  ac- 
tually set  out  for  France,  “I  will  assume  the  undertaking  for 
my  own  crown  of  Castile,  and  am  ready  to  pawn  my  own  jewels 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  it,  if  the  funds  in  the  treasury  should 
be  found  inadequate,”  will  forever  embalm  her  memory  as  blessed, 
and  forever  be  the  richest  jewel  in  the  crown  of  the  queens  who 
repose  in  the  mausoleum  of  the  Escurial. 

On  Friday,  August  3d,  1492,  Columbus  sailed  from  Palos  with 
three  small  vessels  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  men  westward 
through  an  unexplored  sea,  “not”  says  Humboldt  “as  an  adven- 
turer, but  according  to  a preconceived  and  steadfastly  pursued 
plan.”  The  newspapers  of  the  last  few  months  have  made  us  so 
familiar  with  the  incidents  of  that  memorable  voyage,  that  atten- 
tion will  be  called  to  only  one.  This  is  the  change  he  made  in  his 


24 


course,  whose  effect  lias  so  often  been  commented  on  as  exempli- 
fying the  influence  of  small  and  apparently  trivial  events  on  the 
world’s  history. 

Uneasy  at  not  having  discovered  Japan,  which,  according  to 
his  reckoning,  he  should  have  met  with  216  nautical  miles  more 
to  the  East,  Columbus,  after  a long  debate,  yielded  to  the  opin- 
ion of  his  lieutenant,  Martin  Alonzo  Pinson,  and  steered  to  the 
southwest.  If  he  had  kept  his  original  route,  he  would  have 
entered  the  warm  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  have  reached  Flo- 
rida, and  then  perhaps  have  been  carried  to  Cape  Hatteras  and 
Virginia.  The  result  would  probably  have  been  to  give  the 
United  States  a Roman  Catholic  Spanish  population  instead  of  a 
Protestant  English  one,  and  to  make  a different  distribution  of 
the  first  settlements  in  the  new  world  between  the  Latin  and 
Teutonic  races.  Pinson  was  guided  in  forming  his  opinion  by 
a flight  of  parrots  towards  the  southwest.  Uever  had  the  flight 
of  birds  more  important  consequences,  though  auguries  have 
been  made  from  flights  of  birds  from  the  grey  dawn  of  antiquity, 
time  whereof  the  memory  of  man  runneth  not  to  the  contrary. 
On  October  12  0.  S.,  October  21  N.  S.  1492,  Watling  Island  was 
discovered  and  “to  Castile  and  Leon  Columbus  had  given  a new 
world.”  Well  may  his  biographer  exclaim,  “ what  a triumjih  for 
this  extraordinary  man,  who  had  treasured  in  his  breast  for 
twenty  years,  amidst  neglect,  discouragement  and  ridicule,  the 
grand  truth,  which  his  own  incomparable  skill,  wisdom  and  firm- 
ness had  now  demonstrated,  in  the  eyes  of  an  incredulous  world.” 

That  for  the  rest  of  his  life  envy  and  malice  shot  their  long 
poisoned  arrows,  and  ignorance  and  corruption  showered  every 
missile  on  him  ; that  the  greatest  navigator  of  his  or  any  age, 
who  had  done  what  man  can  never  do  again,  discover  a new 
world,  was  suffered  by  the  imgrateful  Old  World,  for  which  he 
had  made  this  greatest  of  discoveries,  to  linger  and  die  in  neg- 
lect, poverty  and  pain  ; and  that  since  his  death  jackals  have 
preyed  on  his  memory,  as  the  nobler  beasts  of  prey  had  preyed 
on  his  liberty  while  he  was  living,  is  unfortunately  but  too  much 
in  keeping  with  the  manner  in  which  the  world  has  so  often 
treated  its  greatest  benefactors — with  that  “ Vox popuh"  which 
damned  Galileo,  murdered  Socrates,  and  crucified  Christ. 


25 


President  Harrison,  in  liis  proclamation  appointing  this  as  a 
general  holiday  for  the  people  of  the  United  States,  says  “Colum- 
bus stood  in  his  age  as  the  pioneer  of  progress  and  enlighten- 
ment. The  system  of  universal  education  is  in  our  age  the  most 
prominent  and  salutary  feature  of  the  spirit  of  enlightenment, 
and  it  is  peculiarly  appropriate  that  the  schools  he  made  by  the 
people  the  centre  of  the  day’s  demonstration.  Let  the  national 
flag  float  over  every  school  house  in  the  country,  and  the  exer- 
cises he  such  as  shall  impress  upon  our  youth  the  patriotic  duties 
of  American  citizenship.”  This  morning’s  demonstration  in  our 
schools  shows  how  heartily  Columbia  has  responded  to  this  sug- 
gestion of  the  Chief  Executive  of  the  country. 

If  the  declarations  of  the  President  on  which  this  suggestion  is 
based  be  true,  and  true  they  are  to  the  letter,  then  this  fair  city 
has  fully  vindicated  her  right  to  the  proud  name  with  which  she 
was  christened  by  her  sponsors  in  baptism  in  testimonial  of  their 
admiration  and  veneration  for  this  great  pioneer  of  progress  and 
enlightenment. 

Whatever  may  be  said  in  praise  or  dispraise  of  the  capital  city 
of  the  State  in  other  regards,  it  is  conceded  on  all  hands  that 
the  zeal  and  public  spirit  shown  by  her  citizens  for  the  educa- 
tion of  all  her  youth,  of  both  sexes  and  all  conditions,  and  the 
number,  acquirements,  learning  and  ability  of  the  teachers,  pro- 
fessors and  curators  in  her  schools  of  every  grade,  from  primary 
to  the  highest,  are  unrivalled-  in  any  city  not  her  superior  in 
wealth  and  population. 

In  many  a happy  household  blessings  are  daily  invoked  on  the 
heads  of  the  instructors  in  her  schools  of  higher  culture  for  the 
inestimable  benefactions  conferred  upon  their  children.  And 
the  services  rendered  by  the  corps  of  Professors  in  the  crowning 
educational  glory  of  the  State,  “the  South  Carolina  College,” 
demonstrate  that  they  are  no  unworthy  successors  of  Maxcy, 
Barnwell,  Henry,  Thornwell,  Lieber,  LaBorde  and  their  other 
predecessors,  who  trained  the  intellects  of  so  many  of  her  illustri- 
ous Alumni,  living  and  dead.  The  bright,  happy  faces  of  the 
ingenuous  youth  of  both  sexes  present  with  us,  whose  excellence 
in  their  various  studies  has  made  them  such  joyous  participants 
in  the  exercises  at  their  various  schools  this  morning,  justify  the 
noble  pride  which  Columbia  feels  in  her  teachers,  her  scholars  and 
her  schools,  and  the  confidence  with  which  she  looks  forward  to  a 
prosperous  future  for  those  so  soon  to  assume  the  duties  and 


26 


responsibilities  of  manhood  and  womanhood.  “ Responsibility/’ 
said  Edward  Bnlwer,  Lord  Lytton,  “that  heaviest  word  in  all 
our  language.”  “Duty,”  said  Robert  E.  Lee  in  still  higher 
strain,  “that  sublimest  word  in  all  our  language.”  May 
teachers  and  taught  ever  appreciate  with  the  same  zest  to-day’s 
demonstration  has  shown,  not  only  the  sentiment  of  the  prince 
of  the  old  British  essayists,  “ What  sculpture  is  to  marble  edu- 
cation is  to  the  human  soul,”  but  also  the  sentiment  that  no 
higher  earthly  duties  can  be  impressed  upon  our  youth  than 
those  which  the  President  suggests  to-day’s  exercises  shall  im- 
press upon  them,  “the  patriotic  duties  of  American  citizen- 
ship.” 

If  it  be  true,  as  Matthew  Arnold  says,  that  “America  holds  the 
future,”  it  is  equally  true  that  those  now  receiving  instruction 
and  training  in  American  schools  hold  America.  “We  live,” 
says  Emerson,  “ in  a new  and  exceptional  age.  America  is  another 
name  for  opportunity.  Our  whole  history  appears  like  a last  effort 
of  the  Divine  providence  in  behalf  of  the  human  race.”  “This 
government,”  said  Jefferson,  “is  the  world’s  best  hope.”  It  is  the 
hope,  it  may  be  the  only  hope,  for  humanity.  Of  what  avail, 
either  in  the  material  or  political  world,  will  be  the  truth  of  the 
Latin  verse  in  which  Turgot  says  of  Franklin,  “ Eripuit  ccelo 
fulmen  scepti'umque  tyrannis,”  if  our  future  belie  our  past  ? 
Motion  is  the  law  of  human  life ; we  must  advance  or  retrograde. 
To  go  forward  is  life,  to  go  backward  is  death.  Our  material 
progress  in  the  past  has  been  marvellous,  and  our  warriors,  our 
statesmen,  our  philosophers  and  our  inventors,  have  taken  their 
places  in  the  gallery  of  the  Immortals.  Several  years  ago  Prof. 
Austin  Phelps,  D.  D.,  said,  “ Five  hundred  years  of  time  in  the 
process  of  the  world’s  salvation  may  depend  on  the  next  twenty 
years  of  United  States  history,”  and  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.  D., 
General  Secretary  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  for  the  United 
States,  has  written  an  exceedingly  interesting  pamphlet,  under 
the  title  of  “Our  Country,  its  possible  future  and  present  crisis,” 
to  show  that  such  dependence  of  the  world’s  future  on  this  gen- 
eration in  America  is  not  only  credible,  but  in  the  highest  degree 
probable.  While  many  of  his  views  have  been  challenged,  no 
exception  has  been  taken  to  certain  historical,  statistical  and  other 
statements  of  fact  to  which  the  attention  of  the  younger  persons 
present  is  especially  called,  and  some  of  which  will  be  freely  used. 
To  give  a somewhat  more  individual  and  local,  and  therefore  to 


27 


you  more  striking,  illustration  of  the  large  proportion  of  the  pro- 
gress in  civilization  which  our  century  has  seen,  reflect  for  a 
moment  that  the  pious,  learned  and  venerable  divine,*  upon 
whose  ministrations  of  the  Gospel  in  yonder  church  successive 
congregations  had  attended  for  half  a century,  until  he  was  re- 
cently translated  to  a better  and  brighter  world — reflect  when 
seven  years  old  he  might  have  seen  Fulton’s  steamboat  on  her 
trial  trip  up  the  Hudson  ; until  twenty  years  of  age  he  could  not 
have  found  in  all  the  world  an  iron  plow  ; at  thirty  he  might  have 
traveled  on  the  first  railway  passenger  train.  Many  of  us  have 
heard  his  description  of  a journey  by  stage-coach  from  Charles- 
ton to  Columbia,  with  John  C.  Calhoun  as  a fellow  passenger, 
long  before  the  sign  was  placed  on  our  highways  “railroad 
crossing,  look  out  for  the  car  while  the  bell  rings  or  the  whistle 
sounds.”  Fifty  years  later  he  could  see  222,000  miles  of  railway. 
For  the  first  thirty-three  years  of  his  life  he  had  to  rely  on  the 
tinder-bos  for  fire.  He  was  thirty-eight  when  steam  communi- 
cation between  Europe  and  America  was  established.  He  had 
arrived  at  middle  life — forty-four— when  the  first  news  was 
sent  by  telegraph  in  a dispatch  from  Annapolis  Junction  to 
Washington,  announcing  the  Whig  convention’s  nomination  of 
Clay  and  Frelinghuysen  made  at  Baltimore  ; ere  he  was  called  to 
his  rest  he  could  see  604,000  miles  of  telegraph  lines. 

Among  the  great  ideas  which  have  become  the  fixed  posses- 
sion of  men  within  the  past  hundred  years,  to  which  Dr.  Strong 
calls  attention,  is  that  of  individual  liberty — so  radically  different 
from  the  conception  of  the  freedom  that  lay  at  the  foundation 
of  the  republics  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  later  of  the  free  cities 
of  Italy,  reference  to  which  in  Florence  nnder  the  rule  of  Lorenzo 
de  Medicis  has  been  made.  Theirs  was  a liberty  of  class,  clan  or 
nation,  not  of  the  individual ; he  existed  for  the  government. 
The  modern  idea  is,  that  as  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath,  so  government  was  made  for  man,  not  man 
for  government.  At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  slavery 
existed  in  Russia,  Hungary,  Prussia,  Scotland,  in  the  British, 
French  and  Spanish  Colonies,  and  in  Forth  and  South  America  ; 
slavery  is  now  practically  extinct  in  Christendom.  And  Mr. 
Blaine,  in  his  striking  “Twenty  Years  of  Congress,”  tells  us  that 
the  men  of  the  South  in  the  inception  of  the  late  terrific  struggle 
took  no  heed  of  the  power,  stronger  than  the  physical  forces  of 


*Rev.  Peter  J.  Shand,  D.  D.,  of  Trinity  Church. 


28 


the  North,  East  and  West,  which  was  sure  to  Avork  against 
them  : the  enlightened  philanthropy  and  the  awakened  con- 
science, which  had  abolished  slavery  in  every  other  republic  of 
America,  which  had  thrown  the  protection  of  law  over  the  help- 
less millions  of  India,  and  had  moved  even  the  Russian  Czar  to 
consider  the  enfranchisement  of  the  serf.  That  they  Avould  not 
realize  that  the  contest  was  not  alone  with  the  anti-slavery  men 
of  the  free  States,  not  alone  with  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  old 
flag  which  came  down  on  its  mission  of  wrath,  but  that  it  carried 
with  it  a challenge  to  the  progress  of  civilization  and  was  a fight 
against  the  nineteenth  century.  Another  of  these  great  ideas, 
AA7hich,  finding  its  root  in  the  teachings  of  Christ,  has  grown 
slowly  through  the  ages  to  blossom  in  our  Oavu,  is  that  of  honor 
to  womanhood,  Arhose  fruitage  is  woman’s  elevation.  Early  in 
this  century  it  was  not  very  uncommon  for  an  Englishmen  to 
sell  his  wife  into  servitude — in  a single  year  there  were  thirty- 
nine  instances  of  Avdves  exposed  to  public  sale,  like  cattle  at 
Smithfield.  “Picture  it ! think  of  it  !” 


Abraham  Lincoln  in  his  message  to  Congress  in  1862  said: 
“A  nation  may  be  said  to  consist  of  its  territory,  its  people  and 
its  laws.  The  territory  is  the  only  part  which  is  of  certain  dura- 
bility. That  portion  of  the  earth’s  surface  which  is  inhabited 
by  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  well  adapted  for  the  home 
of  one  national  family,  but  it  is  not  well  adapted  for  two  or 
more.”  The  United  States  are  signally  blessed  in  all  three, 
territory,  people  and  laws.  The  circulating  medium  of  Europe, 
says  a Avitty  Avriter,  is  gold  ; of  Africa,  men  ; of  Asia,  women  : 
of  America,  land.  The  extent  of  this  country  is  simply  immense, 
and  five  years  after  this  message  of  Mr.  Lincoln  the  United 
States  acquired  by  purchase  from  and  treaty  with  Russia  the 
territory  of  Alaska,  with  an  area  exceeding  a half  million  square 
miles.  If  the  inhabitants  of  the  various  States  and  Territories  of 
the  Union  were  summoned  to  attend  at  a given  time  and  place, 
they  would  have  to  be  summoned  as  Herodian  tells  of  the  invita- 
tions of  Commodus  to  the  people  of  his  dependencies  to  attend 
the  Roman  games  : by  circles  of  longitude  and  latitude.  An  eager 
desire  to  acquire,  and  an  unerring  sagacity  to  discover  and  settle 
choice  lands,  has  ever  been  characteristic  of  the  Saxon,  to  whom 


29 


the  title  of  freeholder  was  a patent  and  passport  of  self-respect 
long  before  he  wore  the  collar  of  the  Norman.  The  response 
made  to  the  rallying  cry  of  “ lands  for  the  landless  and  homes 
for  the  homeless,”  by  the  passage  of  Federal  and  State  home- 
stead enactments,  shows  the  American  appreciation  of  land.  In 
one  of  his  speeches,  while  a Representative  in  Congress,  made  in 
the  earlier  part  of  his  stormy  career,  in  support  of  the  home- 
stead policy,  Andrew  Johnson  sketches  his  ideal  of  a rural  popu- 
lation thus  : “You  make  the  settler  on  the  domain,”  said  he, 

“a  better  citizen  of  the  community.  He  becomes  better  quali- 
fied to  discharge  the  duties  of  a freeman.  He  is,  in  fact,  the 
representative  of  his  own  homestead,  and  is  a man  in  the 
enlarged  and  proper  sense  of  the  term.  He  comes  to  the  ballot 
box  and  votes  without  the  fear  or  the  restraint  of  some  land- 
lord. After  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  election  day  are  over,  he 
mounts  his  own  horse,  returns  to  his  own  domicil,  goes  to  his 
own  barn,  feeds  his  own  stock.  His  wife  turns  out  and  milks 
their  own  cows,  churns  their  own  butter,  and  when  the  rural 
repast  is  ready,  he  and  his  wife  and  their  children  sit  down  at 
the  same  table  together  to  enjoy  the  sweet  product  of  their  own 
hands,  with  hearts  thankful  to  God  for  having  cast  their  lots  in 
this  country  where  the  land  is  made  free  under  the  protecting 
and  fostering  care  of  a beneficent  government.”  Compare  this 
with  the  eviction  scenes  in  the  house  of  an  Irish  tenant  of  an 
absentee  -lord.  David  Wilkie’s  great  picture,  “Distress  for 
Rent,”  involuntarily  rises  to  the  mind’s  eye  : “ Look  here  upon 

this  picture  and  on  this.” 

A theory  which  has  taken  a strong  hold  upon  certain  students 
of  history, — history  in  its  broad  sense, — is  that  the  ancient  civil- 
ization of  the  world  had  been  undermined  and  destroyed  by  two 
causes,  the  increase  of  standing  armies  and  the  growth  of  great 
cities.  Our  constitution  scouts  the  idea  of  standing  armies  in 
peace,  and  history  affords  no  parallel  to  the  ease,  rapidity  and 
quiet  with  which  the  enormous  bodies  of  soldiery  were  disbanded 
at  the  termination  of  our  civil  war.  No  great  cities  ever  have  or 
ever  can  dominate  or  menace  this  country  as  Paris  does  France 
in  modern  times,  or  Rome  did  the  habitable  world  in  ancient 
times.  Our  people,  like  Antams,  the  Pagan  athlete  of  antiquity, 


30 


touch  the  restful  bosom  of  mother  earth,  and  will  ever  be  more 
than  a match  for.  those 

“ Pent  in  the  city’s  close  and  narrow  bound. 

Held  by  its  iron  grip  and  endless  round, 

Wrestling  in  conflict,  spent  with  cure  and  dread, 

Battling  with  the  giants  fraud  and  greed.” 

In  an  emergency  this  country  can  bring  into  the  field  millions 
of  soldiers — more  than  the  fabled  hosts  of  Xerxes.  Think  of  the 
serried  battalions  of  armed  men  that  would  spring  up,  were  the 
dragon’s  teeth  sown  throughout  the  soil  of  the  reunited  country 
by  a foreign  foe — soldiers  equal  if  not  superior  to  any  the  world 
has  ever  seen.  They  would  not  be  dragged  from  the  low  haunts 
of  cities  nor  the  enervating  atmosphere  of  crowded  factories,  but 
would  come  from  the  pure  air  and  bracing  pursuits  of  the  coun- 
try. Men  born  on  horseback  and  with  arms  in  their  hands. 

Bed  in  longum  tamen  aevum 

Manserunt,  Jiodie  qve  manent 
Vestigia  ruris 

said  Horace,  and  revealed  unconsciously  one  of  the  main  ele- 
ments of  Roman  conquest. 

In  despite  of  laws  and  lawyers,  legislators  and  economists,  who 
have  labored  for  centuries  to  compel  or  persuade  men  to  regard 
land  as  of  no  more  value  than  money  ; the  American  farmer 
equally  with  the  X orman  baron  cherishes  in  his  heart  the  law 
that  declares  his  homestead  the  inalienable  inheritance  of  his 
children. 

With  the  exception  of  Louisiana,  where  the  civil  law  neces- 
sarily had  sway,  our  country  shows  its  original  composition  as 
English  Colonies  by  the  sway  of  that  grandest,  most  powerful 
and  most  majestic  of  all  the  Colonies  of  England,  the  English 
Common  Law.  Our  political  institutions,  our  republican  habits, 
and  even  our  physical  condition,  have  necessarily  forced  upon  us 
very  considerable  changes  in  the  system  of  the  Common  Law.  dif- 
ferentiating many  of  its  features  from  those  it  formerly  exhibited, 
and  those  it  presents  as  now  administered  in  England. 

But  its  main  features,  mutatis  mutandis,  are  still  the  same. 
And  this  grand  old  Common  Law,  when  we  consider  it  "'"  in  its 
minute  adjustments  and  comprehensive  outlines,  how  scrupulous 
of  right  and  how  instinct  with  liberty,  how  elastic  and  capacious 
to  expand  over  the  complicated  transactions  of  the  highest  civil- 


31 


ization,  yet  strong  and  rigid  to  bend  down  within  its  orbit  the 
most  audacious  power ; when  we  consider  all  the  miracles  that 
have  been  wrought  by  its  spirit  from  Alfred  to  Victoria,”  this 
grand  old  Common  Law  cannot  but  be  regarded  by  us  with  the 
greatest  love  and  veneration. 

In  this  grand  confederacy  of  States,  liberty  is  identical  with 
law  ; the  greatest  manifestation  of  this  identity  being  that  chief 
glory  of  our  institutions,  religious  liberty,  without  which  civil 
liberty  cannot  exist.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  our 
organic  and  fundamental  law,  forbids  the  enactment  of  any  law 
respecting  an  establishment  of  religion  or  prohibiting  the  free 
exercise  thereof.  Every  person  is  (not  permitted  but)  privileged 
to  worship  God  in  such  manner  and  with  such  rites  as  it  seemeth 
to  him  best ; the  only  restraint  being  that  imposed  by  that  uni- 
versal maxim  of  all  law,  inculcated  by  the  highest  morality,  “sic 
utere  tuo  ut  non  alienum  laedas.”  Immortal  honor  to  the  shades 
of  Lord  Baltimore,  the  Catholic  of  Maryland,  and  Roger  Wil- 
liams, the  Baptist  of  Rhode  Island,  the  great  pioneers  and  pro- 
tagonists of  religious  toleration.  What  amazing  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  enhanced  valuation  of  human  life,  is  evidenced 
by  the  amelioration  of  punishments  imposed  by  the  criminal 
law.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  Criminal  Code  of 
England,  like  that  of  Draco,  was  written  in  letters  of  blood,  not 
ink  ; two  hundred  and  twenty-three  capital  offenses  ! McKenzie, 
in  his  History  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  calls  attention  to  some 
of  them  : If  a man  injured  Westminster  Bridge,  he  was  hanged. 

If  he  appeared  disguised  on  a public  road,  he  was  hanged.  If  he 
cut  down  young  trees,  if  he  shot  at  rabbits  (in  the  eye  of  English 
law  the  life  of  a rabbit  was  worth  more  than  that  of  a man),  if 
he  stole  property  valued  at  five  shillings,  if  he  stole  anything  at 
all  from  a bleach  field,  if  he  wrote  a threatening  letter  to  extort 
money,  if  he  returned  prematurely  from  transportation  for  any 
of  these  offenses,  he  was  immediately  hanged.  A striking  instance 
of  how  long  penal  statutes  entirely  obsolete,  and  breathing  the 
spirit  of  a semi-barbarous  age,  survive  on  the  statute  book,  is 
furnished  in  our  own  State  in  the  case  of  Antonio  Dew,  who  in 
1857  was  convicted  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged  for  picking  a 
pocket,  but  so  utterly  irreconcilable  was  the  infliction  of  such  a 
punishment  with  the  feelings  of  the  age,  that  the  Judge,  the 
Attorney-General,  the  Jury  and  the  Bar  unanimously  joined  in 
requesting  the  interposition  of  the  pardoning  power,  though 


32 


there  was  no  doubt  of  the  prisoner’s  guilt.  The  barbarous  Sta- 
tute of  Elizabeth  under  which  he  was  convicted  has  since  been 
repealed,  but  the  existence  of  such  a law  to  a period  so  recent  is 
an  illustration  of  the  incongruity  between  the  ideas  of  a former 
age  and  the  changed  state  of  manners. 

All  history,  ancient  and  modern,  shows  that  it  is  by  the  fusion 
of  different  types  of  race  that  all  great  and  vigorous  new  types 
are  made,  and  the  fusion  of  peoples  of  different  bloods  has  never 
been  more  thoroughly  exemplified  than  in  the  people  of  the 
United  States. 

The  English  leavening  of  the  mass  is  immense.  British  Puri- 
tans, so  fully  treated  of  by  Eeale,  so  vividly  sketched  by  Macaulay  ; 
English  Catholics  ; English  Cavaliers  and  Churchmen,  who  have 
stamped  an  indelible  impress  on  the  history  and  the  life,  social, 
political  and  religious,  of  so  much  of  the  Union.  The  deeds  of 
the  founders  of  Virginia  and  The  Knights  of  the  Golden  Horse- 
shoe of  the  Old  Dominion,  read  like  the  romances  of  mediaeval 
chivalry. 

“ The  knightliest  of  the  knightly  race. 

Who  since  the  days  of  old 
Have  kept  the  lamp  of  chivalry 
Alight,  in  hearts  of  gold  ; 

The  kindliest  of  the  kindly  band. 

Who  rarely  hating  ease. 

Yet  rode  with  Spotswood  round  the  land 
And  Raleigh  round  the  seas; 

Who  climbed  the  blue  Virginian  hills 
Against  embattled  foes. 

And  planted  there,  in  valleys  fair 
The  lily  and  the  rose ; 

Whose  fragrance  lives  in  many  lands. 

Whose  beauty  stars  the  earth. 

And  lights  the  hearths  of  many  homes 
With  loveliness  and  worth. 

But  the  English  themselves  are  a mongrel  race  at  best,  with  a 
mongrel  tongue — race  and  tongue,  both,  all  the  better  for  being 
so  : Briton,  Roman,  Danes,  Angles,  Saxon,  X or  in  an.  and  what 
not,  a conglomeration  of  ancestors,  a mince-pie  of  pedigree.  In 
large  quantities  the  Dutch,  the  Germans,  the  Scotch,  the  Irish, 
the  Scotch-Irish  so  piquantly  described  by  Parton.  The  name 
which  Bulwer  bestows  upon  one  of  his  characters  in  “My  Kovel 
or  Varieties  in  English  Life,”  “ Stickto  Rights”  is  characteristic 
of  every  genuine  son  of  Ulster.  The  French  Huguenots  too. 
‘ £ who  added  to  other  streams  of  worthy  descent  blood  as  pure,  as 
sweet,  as  true,  as  has  ever  ennobled  a race  and  given  splendor  to 


33 


the  annals  of  history,”  the  Rhinelanders,  the  Welsh,  the  Kelt, 
the  adventurous  Norman,  the  sturdy  Saxon,  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
the  Anglo-Norman.  Green’s  studies  show  that  Tennyson’s  poetic 
line,  “Saxon  and  ^Norman  and  Dane  are  we,”  must  be  supple- 
mented with  Kelt  and  Gaul,  Welshman  and  Irishman,  Frisian 
and  Flamand,  French,  Huguenot  and  German  Palatine.  What 
took  place  a thousand  years  ago  and  more  in  England  takes 
place  to-day  in  the  United  States  ; history  repeats  itself.  When 
Dr.  Strong  says  that  nearly  all  of  the  civil  liberty  in  the  world 
is  enjoyed  by  the  English,  the  British  colonists  and  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  he  is  unquestionably  correct. 

When  he  says  that  these  are  Anglo-Saxons,  the  question  may 
be  safely  left  to  those  learned  in  the  diversities  of  races.  Her- 
bert Spencer,  whose  work  on  “Social  Statics”  Jefferson  ought 
to  have  lived  long  enough  to  read,  tells  us  concerning  our  future  : 
“ One  great  result  is,  I think,  tolerably  clear.  From  biological 
truth,  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  eventual  mixture  of  the  allied 
varieties  of  the  Aryan  race  forming  the  population  will  produce 
a more  powerful  type  of  man  than  has  hitherto  existed,  and  a 
type  of  man  more  plastic,  more  adaptable,  more  capable  of 
undergoing  the  modifications  needful  for  complete  social  life.  I 
think  whatever  difficulties  they  may  have  to  surmount,  and 
whatever  tribulations  they  may  have  to  pass  through,  the  Ameri- 
cans may  reasonably  look  forward  to  a time  when  they  will  have 
produced  a civilization  grander  than  any  the  world  has  known.” 
In  the  veins  of  the  people  of  this  Union  there  runs  the  composite 
blood  of  the  bravest  and  most  enterprising  of  all  the  nations  of 
Europe,  of  all  the  sons  of  Japhet.  We  are  the  heirs  of  the  best 
blood  of  all  the  ages.  Since  prehistoric  times  populations  have 
moved  steadily  westward,  as  “if  driven  by  the  mighty  hand  of 
God,”  producing  almighty  and  unerring  instincts  like  those 
which  propel  the  migrations  of  the  swallow  or  the  life-withering 
marches  of  the  locust.  “ Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  it 
way,”  and  we  are  the  farthest  West,  and  beyond  us  is  the  Orient. 
We  are  destined  alike  by  poetry,  prophecy  and  science,  in  the 
days  which  are  yet  to  come,  and  which  shall  fill  up  our  inherit- 
ance of  glory,  to  a rich  and  lofty  combination  of  characters 
above  the  level  of  our  time  ; to  thoughts  suited  to  that  elevation  ; 
to  feelings  more  generous,  vivid  and  majestic,  and  exploits  uniting 
the  soaring  spirit  of  old  Romance,  with  the  sustained  strength  of 
modern  energy,  the  glory  th  at  was  Greece  in  her  brightest  days 


34 


of  intellectual  lustre,  and  the  grandeur  that  was  Rome  in  her 
most  heroic  days  of  patriotism. 

The  people  of  these  United  States  purpose  to  celebrate  in  that 
great  city  of  this  farthest  West,  which  has  risen  Phoenix-like  from 
its  ashes,  and  whose  growth  and  splendor  are  alike  the  marvels 
of  the  age,  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Christopher  Columbus,  by  holding  an  international 
exhibition  of  arts,  industries,  manufactures  and  the  products  of 
the  soil,  mine  and  sea  ; whereat  will  be  shown  by  the  side  of  the 
exhibits  from  foreign  and  older  nations  the  resources  of  this 
people,  their  development,  and  the  progress  of  civilization  in  the 
New  World. 

The  display  at  this  exhibition  will  be  grander  than  any  dis- 
play of  which  this  planet  has  ever  been  the  theatre  ; grander  than 
the  display  at  Roman  triumphs,  imperial  coronations,  Eleusi- 
nian  mysteries  and  the  festivals  of  the  old  religions  ; grander 
than  the  display  in  the  temples  of  that  mighty  empire  which 
once  overshadowed,  according  to  tradition,  all  the  East — temples 
whereon  gods  long  forgotten  held  court,  accepted  the  tributes 
of  peoples  extinct,  and  received  the  worship  of  mighty  mon- 
archs  unrecorded  ; grander  than  the  display  at  the  great  games 
of  antiquity,  Pythian,  Nemean,  Isthmian  and  the  famed  Olym- 
pian, where  to  gain  a prize  was  regarded  as  the  crown  of 
human  happiness,  where  Herodotus  read  the  wonders  of  his  his- 
tory to  the  peoples  of  assembled  Greece,  the  most  agile-limbed 
and  quick-witted  of  all  the  sons  of  Adam  ; grander  than  the 
display  at  oriental  fairs  or  occidental  World  Expositions,  where 
are  shown  the  marvels  of  the  lands  beyond  the  oceans.  The 
concourse  in  attendance  on  this  exhibition  will  be  a concourse 
unequalled  since  the  family  of  man  was  dispersed  at  the  tower 
of  Babel.  The  buildings  will  be  worthy  of  such  a celebration. 
They  will  be  majestic  palaces  constructed  on  a scale  of  magni- 
tude in  architecture  hitherto  unknown  on  earth  ; and  architec- 
ture is  the  one  lone  art  in  which  mere  magnitude  is  sublime. 
They  will  be  colossal  structures — covering  areas  of  an  immensity 
unprecedented,  finished  in  the  highest  style  and  with  the  latest 
improvements  of  art — structures  in  which  St.  Peter's  could  be 
enclosed  as  a gem.  There  will  be  gathered  together  from  all 
parts  of  the  earth  the  representatives  in  person  and  in  matter  of 
every  science  and  of  every  art ; the  wise  men  and  their  wondrous 
creations,  not  only  from  the  East,  but  from  the  four  quarters 


35 


of  the  globe,  from  every  point  of  the  compass  and  from  the 
farthest  isles  of  the  sea.  There  will  be  gathered  together 
princes  in  purple  and  ambassadors  of  great  kings  and  common- 
wealths, authors  and  artists,  inventors  and  discoverers,  railway 
kings  and  master  navigators,  warriors  and  statesmen,  painters 
and  sculptors,  geographers  and  astronomers,  electricians  and 
philosophers  ; orators  on  whose  lips  listening  Senates  have  hung  ; 
grace  and  female  loveliness ; the  poets  who  have  raved  over 
beauties  and  the  beauties  over  whom  poets  have  raved.  There 
will  be  gathered  together  the  merchant  princes  and  the  great 
financiers,  the  barons  of  coal  and  iron,  the  lords  of  cotton  and 
the  cereals,  the  incarnation  of  all  industries,  mental  and  mate- 
rial, the  magnates  who  govern  the  world  of  thought  and  the 
magnates  who  govern  the  world  of  action.  There  will  be 
gathered  together  the  latest  discoveries  and  inventions  of  an  age 
of  discoveries  and  inventions,  the  visible  and  tangible  manifesta- 
tions of  the  progress  of  civilization  in  the  New  World,  and  of 
the  development  of  its  gigantic  West,  settled  under  the  mighty 
whip  of  electricity  and  the  mighty  spur  of  steam.  There  too 
will  be  gathered  together  the  choicest  productions  of  the  pencil 
and  the  pen,  the  chisel  and  the  brush  ; wealth  “ which  far  out- 
shines the  wealth  of  Ormus  and  of  Ind pearl  and  gold  beyond 
the  “barbaric  pearl  and  gold  of  the  kings  of  the  gorgeous  East 
treasures  beyond  those  of  the  Preadamite  Sultans,  and  the  pro- 
ducts of  mines  richer  than  the  mines  of  Golconda.  There  will 
be  gathered  together  the  elite,  the  beauty  and  the  glory  of  earth, 
with  whatsoever  is  most  wonderful  in  the  worlds  of  mind,  of 
matter  and  of  man.  And  as  the  traveller  from  prehistoric  times, 
who,  centuries  ago,  when  the  world  was  young,  bathed  in  the 
fountain  of  perpetual  youth,  wanders  amazed  amid  the  marvels 
on  every  hand,  the  marvels  of  the  natural  products  of  the  soils, 
the  mines  and  the  seas,  and  the  marvels  of  the  artificial  products 
of  the  arts,  industries  and  manufactures ; in  the  vivid  lustre  of  a 
light  created  by  the  hand  of  man,  brilliant  enough  to  prove  of 
itself  that  man  was  created  in  the  image  of  that  God  who  said  : 
“Let  there  be  light  and  there  was  light;”  to  the  voluptuous 
swell  of  “ music  such  as  might  have  charmed  Calypso  and  her 
nymphs  ” — music  varied  to  suit  the  songs  of  every  clime  and  every 
tongue,  from  the  hymns  chanted  by  the  fire  worshipers  to  the 
sun  at  the  crash  of  barbaric  empires  to  the  songs  with  which  the 
serpent  charmer  charms  the  serpent : when  this  visitor  to  this 


36 


gorgeous  scene  asks  the  presiding  genii,  the  Dii  majores  of  this 
monumental  celebration,  Where  is  the  monument  to  him  who 
made  possible  all  this  display  of  the  wonders  of  the  New  World 
by  his  grand  discovery,  whose  four  hundredth  anniversary  is  so 
grandly  commemorated  ? Clio,  the  Muse  of  History,  and  the 
majestic  shade  of  Columbus  alike  will  answer  : “ Si  monumentum 
requiris  circumspice.” 

Look  around  ! not  only  on  the  wonders  visible  to  the  physi- 
cal sight,  tangible  to  the  physical  touch,  such  as  mortal  eye  has 
never  before  seen,  mortal  hand  has  never  before  touched.  But 
look  around  ! on  this  country,  its  territory,  its  people  and  its 
laws,  its  civil  and  religious  liberty,  its  freedom,  even  in  these 
hallelujahs  of  rejoicing,  from  “ the  barbaric  pride  of  a Norwegian 
or  Hunnish  stateliness its  unbounded  humanity,  its  reincar- 
nation of  the  old  and  elegant  humanity  of  Greece,  illumined  and 
made  to  glow  by  the  radiance  of  a Redeemer  and  a Revelation. 
Look  around  ! upon  a land  whose  limbs  are  not  bowed  with 
toil  nor  rusted  with  a vile  repose — a land  which,  though  young, 
has  outlived  the  chances  of  a child,  and  which,  though  still  in 
the  vigor  of  its  youth,  has  already  become  a larger  and  more 
tolerant  Geneva  ; a larger,  less  tumultuary  and  not  less  patriotic 
Athens ; a larger,  freer  and  more  beautiful  England.  Look 
around  1 upon  a Union  which  has  redeemed  a continent  to  the 
Christian  world  from  the  wild  beasts  and  the  wilder  children  of 
Shem  ; — a Union  which  has  extended  over  all  this  vast  domain 
the  laws,  the  language  and  the  literature  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  ; — a Union  which  has  trained  forty-four  States'from  infancy 
to  the  expanded  manhood  of  National  life  ; — a Union  whose  forty- 
four  States  are  one  as  the  sea,  but  separate  as  the  billows ; — a 
Union  where  there  are  States  without  Kings  or  nobles,  Churches 
without  Priests  of  State ; — a Union  where  the  people  are  the 
only  sovereigns,  with  their  sovereign  will  peaceably  expressed  at 
the  ballot  box ; where  the  people  are  governed  by  grave  magis- 
trates of  their  own  selection,  and  equal  laws  of  their  own  framing, 
under  which  there  are  equal  rights  to  all  and  special  privileges  to 
none.  Look  around  ! upon  a people  capable  of  falling  from 
their  high  estate  only  by  their  own  abnegation  of  their  duties  as 
citizens  and  sovereigns,  by  their  own  recreancy  to  the  history 
and  traditions  of  the  past,  by  their  own  treachery  to  the  duties 
of  the  present  and  the  hopes  of  the  future ; a people  who,  unless 


37 


their  career  be  cut  short  by  their  own  voluntary  sell-destruction, 
are  destined  under  the  providence  of  God, 

“ When  the  war  drums  throb  no  longer  and  the  battle  flags  are  turled,” 

to  the  hegemony 

“ In  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world.” 


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